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Dana Blatte

Idolatry & Other Crimes

​This is how you kill
            a viper. How a uniform and a gun
can change a man for better
                        or for worse. There is
            no recoil to voice my death — 
I choke my opiates down and strangle
                        a serpent. Necklaced
            and defanged. How a gun can free
                                        a man. How a uniform can skip
a stone. There is no way to hide
                        goodbye. Silenced yet full
            of things to say. Drugs
to make, languages to slaughter.
                        The man pulls the gun and there is
            no sound. No funeral befit a viper.
                                         I lose
            my fangs on a daughter yet
                        to strike. Here I am, angling
            a voice. Freeing a language
                                         of blood and all the places
where our wounds hold no stones, where we swallow
            our tails and slick goodbyes. Silenced
yet deathless — this is how
                        you change a man for good.

Biography

Picture
​Dana Blatte (she/her) is a sixteen-year-old from Massachusetts. Her work is published or forthcoming in Fractured Lit, Parentheses Journal, perhappened mag, and more. In addition to writing, she is passionate about language learning, illustration, and taste-testing vegetarians snacks. You can find her on Twitter @infflorescence.
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ISSN 2639-426X
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  • Home
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  • Issues
    • Issue 49
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    • Issue 46
    • Issue 45
    • Issue 44
    • Issue 43
    • Issue 42
    • Issue 41
    • Issue 40
    • Issue 39
    • Issue 38
    • Issue 37
    • Issue 36
    • Issue 35
    • Issue 34
    • Issue 33
    • Issue 32
    • Issue 31
    • Issue 30
    • Issue 29
    • Issue 28
    • Issue 27
    • Issue 26
    • Issue 25
    • Issue 24
    • Issue 23
    • Issue 22
    • Issue 21
    • Issue 20
    • Issue 19
    • Issue 18
    • Serenity
    • Issue 17
    • The Audio Room
    • Issue 16
    • Issue 15
    • Issue 14
    • Play It Again
    • Issue 13
    • Issue 12
    • Issue 11
    • Issue 10
    • Issue 9
    • Issue 8
    • Issue 7
    • Issue 6
    • Hand to Mouth
    • Issue 5
    • Issue 4
    • Issue 3
    • Issue 2
    • Issue 1
  • Submissions